It was the opening night of the exhibit about Creativity in Everyday Life presented by the Goldstein Museum of Design presents at the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. The mid-size common area was made almost cramped in the poorly lit space that dusk had begun to shade. What shone were Mackie and Chanel.
When you write about and comment on fashion, and go to events that maybe irrelevant, you risk wasting your time and energy? But the exhibit surprised this writer by showing a lot of clothes relative to other kinds of creative expression. This could have been tunnel vision.
A jacket from Bob Mackie, a dress from Gabrielle Chanel, and flour sack dress stood out.
The Mackie piece is emphatically flamboyant. If memory serves, Macke was not known for embracing subtlety. In wearing this piece you will command attention; the orange, black and white jacket had horseheads at the armpits, and feathers on the shoulders with feathers as their manes.
The flamboyance and melodrama of the horse manes left a strong impression. And it raised a question that comes up at runway shows, and beyond. “Why would you wear that”? On the Macke, this writer can only shrug!
For a student of style, and of the history of fashion, to see the iconic Chanel little black dress was something! Knowing a little bit about what Gabrielle Chanel means to fashion is to know that the dress, as simple as it is, was a revolution to 20th-century women! In conversations about iconic fashion, Chanel comes up soon. A frank irony is that the dress isn’t impressive! So after you’ve read about its influence, to see the artifact is memorable! (And the photographer’s talent did an injustice to the dress.)
A vital and personal question is “does this express your personality well”? Too many people ask you this question snottily, and some ask themselves this just as snottily. Dogma about what you should (or shouldn’t) wear abounds. When you can ignore this, do because it seldom helps anyone.
The little black dress stood opposite from its artistic opposite. This, literally and figuratively. Pivoting from the Chanel to a plainer pink dress, this writer bumped into the guest curator, Brad Hokanson, without knowing it. He explained that the simple peasant garment was flour sack dress.
It had been made during the Great Depression by broke folks who had to make their own clothes. They couldn’t afford store-bought, even if that had been commonplace back then, or buy proper fabric. Survival was the priority. Not style!
A fashion snob might belittle the flour sack dresses by asking “why would anyone wear this”? This, if the flour dress wasn’t cute, and if it’s history didn’t explain the odds against dressing beautifully when everyone was broke, and when fashion become an afterthought compared to subsisting.
This story about flour sacks made the jaw drop. To finish the visit by having the curator dip your toes into a surprising chapter of American fashion and economic history is remarkable! As an incorrigible student of personal style, you can often learn the basics about fashion history, which the formally trained take as granted at surprising moments!
Creativity. Everyday life. Fashion is a pillar of these….
These questions, above, about self-expression through clothing probably motivated the exhibit showed so much clothing. Fashion is a choice that we act on without thinking about, and yet act on daily.
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